Ah, Khalid, fibbing again! Really, now, who exploits and abuses the kids?

The Child Act, 2001 defines ‘child’ to be anyone below the age of 18 years.

Section 31(1)(a) of that Act makes it an offence if any person who, being a person having the care of a child, abuses, neglects, abandons or exposes the child in a manner likely to cause him physical or emotional injury or causes or permits him to be so abused, neglected, abandoned or exposed.

Section 32 of the same Act provides that it is an offence for any person who causes or procures any child or, being a person having the care of a child, allows that child to be on any street, premises or place for the purposes of

(a) begging, receiving alms, whether or not there is any pretence of singing, playing, performing or offering anything for sale; or

(b) carrying out illegal hawking, illegal lotteries, gambling or other illegal activities detrimental to the health and welfare of the child.

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boy scouts out camping

school cadet infantry training

national service trainees undergoing training

school children participating in the national day parade

JERIT cyclists below 18 years ( courtesy of Malaysiakini )

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On 23rd August, 2008, on our way up to Permatang Pauh for the by-election, we stopped at the Tapah lay-by for some R & R.

Whilst most ended up at the KFC restaurant, Bernard, Marina and I headed to the main food court for some teh tarik and coffee.

Whilst having our drinks, this young child aged 13 approached us.

I cannot remember his name, but he introduced himself and asked if we would help his religious school by buying some poster calendar that he was selling for RM10.00.

I asked if he had authority to sell this on behalf of his school and he promptly produced a letter of authorisation from the school.

I inquired how frequently he had to go out and how many students were involved.

He responded that all students were required to participate in this exercise and whilst he would not say how frequently he had to approach the public to sell the school’s wares, he said it was ‘kerap’.

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Malaysiakini reports that fifteen-year-old JERIT cyclist S Thivyakumar ‘lambasted the cops for thinking that the teenagers were “too young” to take care of themselves and join Jerit’s campaign’.“They keep asking us whether we know why we are here… of course we do!” he exclaimed. “We are here to fight for a better life… and we are not young children that every time we want to go to the toilet, one of them has to accompany us,” he said.

Thivyakumar is reported to have said that all 27 underaged cyclists were packed together in a small room and given only mats to sleep on the night they were detained at the Rawang police station.

Another young JERIT cyclist, Ravindran, stated that they were well-aware of the objectives of the campaign. “They think we are children and we do not know what is going on… but we grew up seeing how our parents struggle – how can we not know about it,” said the 17-year-old Ravindran.

The report also has it that cyclists claimed that the police did not care when they got wet during heavy rain yesterday. According to them, the area where they were detained before they were moved into the police station later in the night had began flooding due to the downpour.

“We ran out as it started flooding but the police and the FRUs forced us back in there,” said 16-year-old Danny.

“They then put a yellow tape around the area to keep us in,” said Danny.

Posted in: Digressions